Keynote Speakers
June 23, 2026 (Tuesday)
10:00 Conference Chair Remarks:
10:10 Conference Host Welcome
10:20 Keynote I
11:00 Keynote II
11:40 Keynote III
Pelin Pekgün, Ph.D.
Department Chair for Analytics, Information Systems, Marketing & Operations Management (AIMO)
Thomas H. Davis Professor in Business and Professor of Analytics
School of Business
Wake Forest University
Winston-Salem, NC, USA
Presentation Title:
Pelin Pekgün is Thomas H. Davis Professor in Business and Professor of Analytics at Wake Forest University School of Business. She also serves as the Department Chair of Analytics, Information Systems, Marketing & Operations Management. She was formerly a Dean’s Fellow and associate professor of management science in the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina. She also established and served as the Faculty Director of the Master of Science in Business Analytics program at the Darla Moore School of Business. Her research interests include applications of management science and operations research in supply chain management, pricing and revenue management, marketing/operations interface, and humanitarian and non-profit operations. Her research has appeared in top journals including Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Production and Operations Management, Journal of Operations Management, Journal of Marketing, Decision Sciences and IIE Transactions.
Prior to joining academia, Professor Pekgün led the operations research team in North America at JDA Software’s Pricing and Revenue Management Group, where she worked in various projects in retail, hospitality, passenger travel and other leisure industries. Her work with the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group on stay night price optimization was a finalist for the 2012 INFORMS Franz Edelman Award and the 2013 INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Section Practice Award. She currently serves as an Associate Editor for Manufacturing & Service Operations Management and Decision Sciences journals, and the Editor of the annual special issue dedicated to the Edelman Award finalist papers for the INFORMS Journal on Applied Analytics. She also serves as the Secretary on the INFORMS Board of Directors and Executive Committee and as the Vice President, Industry on the Production and Operations Management Society (POMS) Board.
Professor Pekgün holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in industrial and systems engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, and B.S. and M.S. degrees in industrial engineering from Bogazici University in Istanbul, Turkey.
12:20 Keynote IV
June 24, 2026 (Wednesday)
10:00 Conference Chair Remarks:
10:20 Keynote V
Dr. Sila Çetinkaya, Ph.D.
Professor of Operations Research and Engineering Management
Cecil H. Green Professor of Engineering
Lyle School of Engineering
Southern Methodist University
Dallas, Texas, USA
11:00 Keynote VI
11:40 Keynote VII
12:20 Keynote VIII
June 25, 2026 (Thursday)
10:00 Conference Chair Remarks:
10:20 Keynote IX
11:00 Keynote X
11:40 Keynote XI
12:20 Keynote XII